NASA to announce 2005 mission to Mars

Still smarting over the loss of two spacecraft last year, NASA scientists are ready to unveil a much more cautious campaign to deploy robots on the surface of Mars over the next 15 years, CNN has learned. The space agency’s Mars brain trust on Thursday will announce a 2005 mission in which an orbiter will map the Martian surface with an eagle-eyed camera. In 2007, a “major lander and rover” mission will follow.